Siemens family

[1] The Siemens family was first documented in 1384 with Henning Symons, a farmer of the Free imperial city of Goslar in Lower Saxony, Germany.

His grandson Hans (1628–94), speaker of the Merchant's Guild and commander of the town's vigilance committee, built the Siemens House in Goslar in 1692.

The Siemens family provided numerous members to Goslar city council as well as four mayors, the last being Johann Georg (1748–1807).

Werner Siemens, a former artillery and engineering officer in the Prussian army, invented a telegraph that used a needle to point to the right letter instead of using Morse code.

In 1867 Siemens completed the monumental Indo-European (Calcutta to London) telegraph line[1] and in 1870 a transatlantic communications cable.

In 1881, a Siemens AC Alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in the town of Godalming, United Kingdom.

Werner's cousin and father-in-law, Carl Georg Siemens (1809–1885), a professor of technology at the University of Hohenheim, received personal ennoblement from the King of Württemberg.

The von Siemens are said to return to the chairmanship in the future should necessity require it or an eligible candidate be ready to run.